The cattle trade continues to go backwards. New weight restriction penalties were announced this week by Ashbourne Meats at its Roscrea plant. Heifers between 380kg and 400kg are hit with a 20c/kg penalty, with 30c/kg for over 400kg carcases.

Bulls over 400kg are hit with progressive penalties, from 10c/kg for 400kg to 420kg, to 50ckg for cattle between 480kg and 500kg. Stock bull prices apply for bulls over 500kg. These follow the penalties Kepak is levying on suppliers.

With in-spec cattle getting priority treatment from factories, farmers with out-of-spec cattle are incurring higher losses with every day they are forced to retain and feed cattle

Kill figures continue to lag well back on last year, with last week’s kill of 37,698 practically unchanged from the previous week, and over 1,000 cattle down on the same week last year.

Farmers are reporting extreme difficulty in getting cattle killed, with backlogs of a month and more being widely reported.

With the majority of cattle now housed across the west, the heavy rains of the last few days in Munster are seeing ground conditions force cattle indoors.

With in-spec cattle getting priority treatment from factories, farmers with out-of-spec cattle are incurring higher losses with every day they are forced to retain and feed cattle, especially when the higher costs of feeding housed cattle are taken into account.

Sluggish

The weanling trade, meanwhile, is as sluggish as would be expected considering the issues facing farmers. Export demand is down, and prices are back up to €40/head for bulls.

While the BPS advance payment, which is hitting farmers bank accounts from Wednesday, usually has an immediate positive effect on the market, there is some pessimism that the money is already spent this year. Mart managers have been giving some credit to farmers over the last couple of weeks to allow them to trade in advance of the payment landing.

Read more

Beef prices: factories prioritising in-spec stock